Toni Polster

Anton "Toni" Polster (born 10 March 1964) is an Austrian professional football coach and former player. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Austria national team with 44 goals.

Polster's top flight coaching debut at Admira Wacker lasted just three league games before he was sacked on 10 August 2013.

Club Career

Polster came through the Austria Wien youth system to make his professional league debut in August 1982, at 18 years of age. He scored his first Bundesliga goal three weeks later and went on to win three league titles and a domestic cup before moving abroad to play a season in Serie A with Torino. He then spent the five following years at Spanish teams Sevilla, Logrones and Rayo Vallecano, ending up with these teams in mid-table as well except for one year, 1989–90, in which Sevilla FC ended in sixth place and played UEFA Cup the following year. In 1990, he finished runner-up in the Spanish goalscoring chart. In 1993, he moved to Germany to spend five years at Koln, again ending up in mid-table every season except for the last one in which he experienced relegation. That made him join Borussia Monchengladbach next year but they got also relegated at the end of the season and Polster returned to Austria to play a final season at Austria Salzburg.

He was known to fans as "Toni Doppelpack" – "Toni Brace", because of his reputation for scoring two goals in many matches.

Polster was chosen in Austria's Team of the Century in 2001 and as Austrian Sportsman of the Year 1997.

International Career

In 1983, Polster was selected for the Austria U20's to play at the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship.

He had already made his senior debut for Austria in November 1982 against Turkey, immediately scoring his first goal, and was a participant at the 1990 World Cup and 1998 World Cup.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Тони Польстер (russian)